The glaciers are the thermometers of the Earth and you can see a lot of signs in how the glacier behaves because of the rising climate.
Within 200 years, the glacier will be gone – potentially sooner, even, if the world doesn’t curtail its emissions.
But even in the face of such catastrophe, the remote area keeps growing. While other Icelandic towns have seen wide-scale population flight into the larger cities, the area around Vatnajökull continues to attract new habitants from around the world. It’s become a mecca for bright, sustainably minded mountaineers, who spend their days guiding tourists on to the icy crevasses and their nights revitalising this rural area.
Thermometers of the Earth
Mery González Tejada, originally from Spain, is a relatively new guide on the glacier. That said, her story is one to which many from the area can relate: she heard the call of Vatnajökull, and she answered.
“I basically came to Iceland with nothing. I didn’t want to rent something in Reykjavik, I wanted to be as close to the mountains, to the glaciers, as possible,” says Mery brightly.
After settling in the remote Vatnajökull National Park region, she serendipitously found work as an au pair for a family of glacier guides, who took her onto the glacier for the first time. She was immediately addicted – spending her free time either on the glacier or studying for her certification in guiding.
“After three months, I had to leave the family because they wanted to move closer to civilisation,” she laughs. Of course, she couldn’t go with them, deciding instead to stay in the rural area and work in the local kindergarten as she finished her classes. Soon after, she was ready, and the energetic and upbeat mountaineer led her first group into the cliffs and crevasses of Vatnajökull.
“It can be tiring, both physically and mentally, of course, but it’s so exciting,” she says of guiding. “I never go the same way, so I get to explore everyday. The glacier never gets tired – it’s so beautiful.”
Mery is, like most of the guides in the area, devoted to a sustainable lifestyle. She doesn’t take planes, choosing to travel to Europe via ferry when needed. She also doesn’t consume any animal products, reduces her daily transport to the bare minimum, and buys things mostly secondhand. Basically, anything Mery can do to reduce her footprint, she does.
“The glaciers are the thermometers of the Earth and you can see a lot of signs in how the glacier behaves because of the rising climate,” she explains. “It’s not just a headline in a newspaper – ‘Global warming is happening’ – that you don’t actually see in real life. In the glaciers, it is so obvious, and that can help you understand what is happening.”
Long travel
The changes are truly stark. Three years ago, when Mery first journeyed up on to the ice, there was a 100m walk from the parking lot to the beginning of the glacier. Now, it’s a 500m uphill climb. “It is so fast paced.”
Mery does acknowledge, though, that there’s an ecological paradox to her work: the people she’s educating on glacial melting presumably travelled to Iceland via a fossil-fuel-emitting aeroplane. Most are on short trips to the country, probably toting a suitcase full of new weather-appropriate clothing they won’t wear again. It’s a sobering reality. The devoted environmentalist spends her days entertaining people that act antithetically to her own personal beliefs. Her work caters to those that are, one could say, part of the problem.
But Mery doesn’t see this as complicity; instead, she sees her role as that of an advocate, choosing to focus on the positive outcomes of guiding.
“People get really impacted,” she admits. “When they see where the glacier was in 2003 and where it is now… the changes are so visual. Most people get concerned.”
This, she explains, can spur on more substantial changes – including minimising consumption of animal products, choosing eco-friendly options for transport and opting to wear used clothing wherever available.
“Nowadays, it’s just so easy to be sustainable,” she says. “Instead of buying a new pair of jeans, you can go into a trading place and give them yours and get them repaired or get a pair from someone else. You can change the mindset of always wanting something that’s brand new.”
But, along with that, one of the guide’s biggest recommendations is engaging in longer travel. “Instead of going somewhere for a week, go for a month,” she says. “Then you will see everything and you won’t have or want to come back again – so even though you are taking the plane, you are making the most of your trip.”
A literal force of nature
Photographer Colin Dodgson captured the guides on the glacier in the accompanying photos. The artist had never been on a glacier before and his first climb up was – like Mery’s – transformational.
“It’s a tangible experience of what’s happening with climate change that couldn’t be experienced in a city where people talk about climate change. It puts to bed any argument about whether climate change is real or not,” explains Colin; his voice still full of reverence even days after the photoshoot. “It’s physical, visual evidence of what’s happening to the planet.”
The group wore 66°North in the pictures – Iceland’s most iconic heritage brand, their daily uniform and also worn by Icelandic fisherman. In 2019, the high-end performance wear label became carbon-neutral and was certified B-Corp this year, making it a fitting pick for the guides, many of whom wear the brand daily on their hikes and everyday life.
“The photoshoot was also bittersweet in a way, because you know you are participating in something that won’t exist in the future – even some of the guides admitted that in five years they are going to have to get new jobs,” he says.
But, for Colin, Vatnajökull’s pull is much deeper than just a call for activism. Just as Mery anticipated, he, like so many before him, has fallen under its spell.
“Glaciers are overwhelmingly beautiful and natural,” he concludes. “It’s amazing to interact with something that’s such a force of nature – literally.”
The power to choose
Tindi Mar was also at the shoot. The model and climate activist is, like Mery, devoted to sustainability, living in an eco-community and doing her part to promote environmental change from within the fashion industry.
“I like to believe that we are the ancestors of a new time, a time that demands a cognitive shift where human is no longer a separate entity from nature, where we can recognise how interconnected we are,” she writes of her experience on the glacier.
“Every day is a step. We always have the power to choose – let’s use our power wisely and make our heart beat as a beautiful contribution to the whole world’s symphony.”
Four words
The glaciers are disappearing – these are four words any sustainability-minded individual is familiar with.
But to see those words in real life, to feel the icy water flowing out of them, puts that destruction into stark clarity because the reality of the situation is quite simple:
To those reading this article right now, in the flesh, in this magazine, many glaciers worldwide will likely be gone within your lifetime. And those that remain will be unrecognisable.
The loss of these glaciers will extend far beyond environmental impacts – they represent the loss of our tenacity, our fascination with adventure, and the art these dwarfing beasts have pulled out of us and continue to inspire. We need the glaciers, and we’re killing them.
It’s easy to despair when confronted with such devastation – and granted, many environmentalists do. Mery, though, refuses to lose motivation. She believes we can still tackle climate change head-on.
“You don’t have to change your life completely. It’s impossible to be perfect, but with everyone together we could try to stop these rising temperatures,” she urges.
“We all could each pick up one little grain of sand in one aspect of our lives.”
Model: Tindi Mar. Glacier guides: Mery González Tejada and Oli Thór Kristinsson. Casting: Rachel Chandler at Midland Casting. Production: Sheri Chiu at Art Partner and Thorsteinn Magnusson. 66°North team: Fannar Páll Adalsteinsson, Ingibjörg Magnúsdóttir, Sóley Olafsdóttir. Tailor: Cassady Rose. Photography assistant: Will Grundy. Fashion assistants: Conor Manning, Imaan Sayed